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AntLinux: LinuxOnSoekris

The contents of this website are Copyright (c)2003 by Brian Manning <brian at antlinux dot com>. Please do not reuse any of the content on this website without permission from the author.

I have a HowTos.LinksysWRT54 page, it's also a hackable embedded device that runs Linux.

FIXME move the kernel build stuff to one of the KernelBuild pages. Move application builds to their own pages.

Linux on Soekris

What's on this page:

• Linux on Soekris Links
• Linux on Soekris Notes
• Manifest file contents (from LNX-BBC )
• Current core software build notes
• Other software build notes
• Test Driving your new system
• TODOs

Related pages in this wiki:

• Linux Software Links
• Building a PXE tftp server
• I'm also working on a more formal install/system for the Soekris, which I'm calling AntSoak.

The reason why this page exists is to document my experiences with the Soekris Engineering net4501 embedded device. In past versions of this page, I never linked the Soekris website, nor the Soekris box I am using for all of the below information. Let me rectify that now:

• Soekris Engineering
• Soekris Engineering net4501

The initrd and kernel images that I created with the below instructions are here:

http://files.antlinux.com/linux/soekris/18Feb2003-initrd.gz http://files.antlinux.com/linux/soekris/18Feb2003-vmlinuz

Those two files should be loadable from a DOS formatted CF card using loadlin, or from a Linux formatted CF card using GRUB. Personally, I was PXEbooting them from another server. See how PXEbooting is done on the HowTos.SetupPxeBoot page. Not all of the packages below are installed on the initrd image, the initrd image only has enough software to get you to a shell prompt.

Linux on Soekris Links

Overview pages

• A page on SeattleWireless with a list of embedded-style systems that would be do-able for the Soekris
• pebbleLinux - from NYCwireless.net, a community-based networking group that aims to provide free wireless access to all
• LinuxDevices article on building a Debian image that fits on a 32M CF card
• Many Soekris guides written by David Courtney of Ultradesic, including guides on installing/using Debian, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD on a Soekris device.

Mini-Soekris enabled Linux distros

• Mike Machado's stripped down Debian installation, with lots of extra info on PXE booting - http://www.innercite.com/~mike/soekris/
• net4501 - http://sourceforge.net/projects/linux4501/
• Floppyfw - http://www.zelow.no/floppyfw/download/Soekris/
• LEAF (based on LRP, uses cramfs for packages?) - http://www.leaf-project.org
• Personal Linux Router Project

Other OS's on the Soekris

• m0n0wall (based on FreeBSD)
  • http://www.m0n0.ch/wall/
• FreeBSD setup guide, including ipfilter
  • http://neon1.net/misc/minibsd.html#tB
• OpenSoekris - OpenBSD build script
  • http://opensoekris.sourceforge.net/
• Flashdist - OpenBSD build script
  • http://www.nmedia.net/~chris/soekris/
• CompactBSD
  • http://sourceforge.net/projects/compactbsd
• Bifrost network router project
  • [http://bifrost.slu.se/index.en.html

Other Soekris related software

• LED blink code under FBSD
  • http://lists.soekris.com/pipermail/soekris-tech/2002-February/000027.html
• NatSemi network card drivers
  • http://www.soekris.com/Software/linux_2_4_dp83815.tar.gz
• Linux kernel Soekris LED driver
  • http://www.blurbco.com/~gork/net4501/net4501_modules-1.2.tar.gz

The interface can be used similar to the ipv4 "switches" in /proc.

To turn the LED on:
echo -n 1 > /proc/driver/errroled

To turn the LED off:
echo -n 0 > /proc/driver/errroled

Flashing/Blinking of led automatically
Write a value 2 ~[slow] to 9 ~[fastest]

To see the status of the LED:
cat /proc/driver/errorled

Linux on Soekris Notes

• do not compile in ACPI support for Soekris kernels
• AMD Elan clock - As discussed on the Pengutronix.de AMD Elan page and in the Soekris mailing lists, "A normal PC has a basic frequency for the system timer 0 of 1.19318 MHz, whereas the Elan CPU's have 1.1892 MHz. Without the patch the clock is wrong." The patch is included with kernels newer than 2.4.18-pre7. To enable AMD Elan in the kernel, enter your preferred kernel configuration method (make menuconfig/make xconfig), and browse to Processor type and features ---> (XXX) Processor family, and select 'Elan'.
• National Semiconductor DP83815 short cable problem - As documented on the Soekris website, a small number of the DP83815 ethernet controller chips will, when using short cables lengths (<30m/100ft) in 100Base-TX mode, have excessive receive errors, or if the cable is very short, not receive at all. The fix is to compile and use version 1.51 of the kernel module, available at the Soekris Downloads page.
• Console Serial Port Speed - Setting serial console speed in BIOS ver 0.99 to 38400 baud does not work. Instead it is set for 28.800. To fix it, use a terminal emulator that support 28.800 and change the console speed back to the default 19200. If you cannot find a terminal emulator that support 28.800, there is one available (MS-DOS based) on the Soekris Downloads page.
• Case Screw size - Flathead, 4-40 thread, 3/16 inch overall length.

Manifest file contents (from LNX-BBC)

A package maintainer can specify the locations, permissions, and modes of a file (or collection of files) in a file called manifest. This file contains a list of installation tuples (one per line) of the following format:

source:destination[:mode[:owner[:group]]]

An installation tuple may use shell variables taken from the GAR environment, but must enclose them in curly braces instead of parentheses. Thus, a sample manifest file may contain the following:

${WORKSRC}/nwall:${DESTDIR}${bindir}/nwall:2755:root:tty
${WORKSRC}/src/foo:${DESTDIR}${sharedstatedir}/foo
${WORKSRC}/yoink:${DESTDIR}${sysconfdir}/yoink:0600

Note that all options after the destination location for the file are optional, but one must provide all preceeding options in order to define a given optional field. Thus to specify the owner of a file, one must also specify the mode.

Current core software build notes ( 2003_013.1 )

Some setup before you get into the below: export ANTLINUX=/usr/local/src/antlinux
export ANT_BASE=/usr/local/src/antlinux/base

• freeswan (source): install using make oldmod and make minstall. The oldmod target assumes that you've run make [x|menu]config previously, and it will make clean before it runs make patch the kernel using the make insert target in FreeSWAN (from FreeSWAN doc/impl.notes). This will set up some symlinks in the kernel source, and patch necessary files, after which you can build the Debian package (if desired) using make-kpkg. See other build notes above
• FreeSWAN Non-standard tree install instructions
  • edit the toplevel Freeswan Makefile.inc, change the following:
  1. DESTDIR - final destination; if you are creating a fake root directory, this is what you will change to make everything install under your fake root. Remove the question mark from DESTDIR?, then set the path you want Freeswan to build and install to prior to packaging.
  2. KERNELSRC - location of your kernel source that you will be using for your fakeroot'ed filesystem. Remove the question mark from KERNELSRC?. Also, there's a conditional test around KERNELSRC that was preventing make kpatch (below) from finding the correct kernel source tree. Feel free to remove it.
  • make kpatch - installs the kernel patches
  • install libgmp3 and libgmp3-dev (precision math packages)
  • make programs - installs the program binaries in the specified non-standard location
• compile kernel / modules ( source ):
  • compiled, kernel =.config= file checked into CVS.
  • kernel and System.map installed to $ANT_BASE/boot using 'cp'
  • cd $ANTLINUX/linux
  • cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage$ANT_BASE/boot/vmlinuz-$KERNEL_VERSION.antlinux-YYYY_JJJ.V
  • cp System.map $ANT_BASE/boot/System.map-$KERNEL_VERSION.antlinux-YYYY_JJJ.V
• install libraries so you can run mkcramfs on them
  • INSTALL_MOD_PATH=$ANT_BASE make modules
  • INSTALL_MOD_PATH=$ANT_BASE make modules_install
• HostAP ( source ): compiled. In the Makefile, $KERNEL_PATH and $MOD_PATH need to be set so that the make scripts put the right things in the right places. Re-run depmod again after hostap modules are installed
• use 'make pci' to make the PCI driver
• use 'make install_pci' to install; Makefile runs depmod, but depmod by default wants to use the modules directory for the currently running system, which will fail (lack of permissions)
• You can also patch the kernel with hostap, this way the configuration options will show up in make menuconfig
  • patch the kernel using the kernel patch located in hostap/kernel-patches
  • copy the driver files from driver/modules/ to linux/driver/net/wireless
• natsemi ( source ): you'll have to mangle the Makefile to hardcode the kernel source ($LINUXSRC), so the correct include files are used
• to install: cp dp83815.o ../base/lib/modules/$KERNEL_VERSION/kernel/drivers/net/
• net4501_modules ( source ): just run make from the antlinux directory, the path to the kernel is ../linux
• to install: cp *.o ../base/lib/modules/$KERNEL_VERSION/kernel/drivers/block
• run depmod on the fake base path
  • /sbin/depmod -b $ANT_BASE/lib/modules/$KERNEL_VERSION -F $ANTLINUX/linux/System.map $KERNEL_VERSION
• create the kernel/modules tarball/cramfile: now either create tarballs for use later, or the actual cramfs/zisofs file that will be mounted as a package:
  • ensure that you place the following modules into /lib:
    • loop.o
    • cryptoapi.o ( if using crypto API )
    • loop_gen.o ( if using crypto API in kernel 2.2 )
  • tarballs:
    • cd $ANT_BASE/lib
    • tar -czvf $ANT_BASE/modules-$KERNEL_VERSION.antlinux-YYYY_JJJ.V.tar.gz modules/
    • cd $ANT_BASE
    • tar -czvf $ANT_BASE/boot-$KERNEL_VERSION.antlinux-YYYY_JJJ.V.tar.gz boot/
  • crams:
    • cd $ANT_BASE/lib
    • mkcramfs -n modules-kernel_version.antlinux_YYYY-JJJ.V modules/ modules-kernel_version.antlinux_YYYY-JJJ.V.cram
    • the cramfs file can be mounted directly to /lib/modules, as it should be the complete archive of what is underneath /lib/modules
  • see the Test Drive section for sample mount commands

Other software build notes

• wireless tools ( source )
  • edit the Makefile
    • set $PREFIX to be $ANT_BASE/usr
    • set $KERNEL_SRC = $ANTLINUX/linux (kernel source directory)
  • make
  • cd $ANT_BASE/usr
  • rm -rf man/
  • tar/cram the rest
    • tar: tar -czvf $ANTLINUX/wireless_tools.VV-YYYY.JJJ.V.tar.gz
    • cramfs: mkcramfs -n wireless_tools.VV-YYYY.JJJ.V.tar.gz usr/
• bridge_utils ( source )
• cd to the source directory, and run configure
  • ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/src/antlinux/base/usr
  • run make; make install to install
  • remove the man directory
    • rm -rf =$ANT_BASE/usr/man/=
• package/tar the rest
  • cd $ANT_BASE
  • tar -czvf ./bridge_tools-0.9.6-2003_013.1.tar.gz usr/
    • mkcramfs -n bridge_tools-0.9.6-2003_013.1 usr ../bridge_tools-0.9.6-2003_013.1.cram
• Busybox ( source )
• Edit the Makefile, change the following:
  • DOSTATIC = true
  • USE_SYSTEM_PWD_GRP = false
• enable the following in Config.h:
  • basename (shell scripting), cat, chmod, clear, cp, cut (shell scripting), date, dd, df, dirname(shell scripting), dmesg, dos2unix, du, echo, env (shell scripting), expr (shell scripting), false, find, free, freeramdisk, getopt (shell scripting), grep, gunzip, gzip, head, hostid, hostname, ifconfig (network), init, insmod, kill, killall, klogd, length, ln, logger, logname, losetup, ls, lsmod, makedevs, md5sum, mkdir, mkfifo, mknod, mkswap, mktemp, modprobe, more, mount, mv, nc (network), nslookup (network), pidof, ping (network), pivot_root (moves root filesystem), poweroff, printf, ps, pwd, readlink, reboot, renice, rm, rmdir, rmmod, route (network), sed, sleep, sort, stty, swapoff, swapon, sync, syslogd, tail, tar, tee, test/[ (shell scripting), tftp, time (displays process usage), top, touch, tr (shell scripting), traceroute (network), true, tty, umount, uname, uniq (shell scripting), update, uptime, usleep, vi, watchdog, wc, wget (network), which, whoami, xargs, yes, zcat
• disable the following in Config.h:
  • adjtimex - used for time adjustment
  • ar - extract files from library archive
  • chgrp/chown - won't need these to mount crams containing the real thing
  • chroot - do we need to change root during package mounting?
  • chvt - changes foreground VT, usless for serial ports
  • cmp - compares files
  • cpio - tar does the same thing
  • dc - RPN calculator
  • deallocvt - deallocates a VT
  • dpkg/dpkg_deb - Debian package tools
  • dumpkmap - dumps keyboard map
  • dutmp - dump utmp file
  • fbset - not needed on Soekris
  • fdflush - not needed on Soekris
  • halt - not needed on Soekris
  • hush - yet another BB shell
  • id - prints info for current user
  • lash - yet another BB shell
  • loadacm - loads an acm from STDIN
  • loadfont - loads a console font
  • loadkmap - loads a keyboard map
  • mkfs_minix - makes a minix filesystem
  • mt - controls manual tape
  • poweroff - I don't think you can power off a Soekris
  • rdate - use ntpdate instead
  • reset - resets the screen
  • rpm2cpio - don't have to worry about RPM's
  • setkeycodes - used for hacking unusual keycodes
  • telnet - use netcat instead
  • unix2dos - we don't care to go in that direction
  • uuencode/uudecode - decoding for mail attachements/modem transfers
• Tinylogin ( source )
  • compile
• mini_httpd ( source )
  • edit the Makefile
    • uncomment the SSL_* directives
    • add a $PREFIX variable
    1. $ANT_BASE/usr
  • change the path to BIN_DIR and MAN_DIR
    1. BINDIR = $(PREFIX)/bin
    2. MANDIR = $(PREFIX)/man
  • change line 176 of htpasswd.c from tn = tmpnam(NULL); to tn = mkstemp(NULL); GCC threw a warning from using the first function
  • Before running make install, make sure that the directiries $ANT_BASE/usr/bin and $ANT_BASE/usr/man exist, or the cp in the makefile will fail
• cram/tar
  • rm -rf $ANT_BASE/usr/man
  • tar -czvf $ANTLINUX/tarballs/mini_httpd-1.15c-2003_014.1.tar.gz usr/
  • mkcramfs -n mini_httpd-1.15c-2003_014.1 usr/ $ANTLINUX/crams/mini_httpd-1.15c-2003_014.1.cram

Test Driving your new system

• To mount an NFS share, make sure to use the -o nolock option
  • mount 192.168.7.1:/usr/local/src /mnt/nfs -t nfs -o nolock
• To mount a package:
  • mount /modules/modules-2.4.20.antlinux_2003-044.1.cram /lib/modules -t cramfs -o loop

TODOs